moonslav59

Durbin time!

Romy time!

I hope this no offense day is just an outlier, but it looks scary. 9th inning magic?

No, so we will keep him.

BA had him in the 400's, but ESPN at #171, so a little bit overslot by them.

Yes, I just noticed he was ranked 80th by ESPN, 125th by BA and 175tht by MLB.com, and he was selected 274th. I'm not sure he will eat up the whole left over bonus money, so maybe we draft another one.

He may prefer a change of scenery at this point.

Even against a RHP, he should be benched. It shoulda been Mayor Masa.

They took the game thread away from us, and now we have none?

I'm okay with a rental, if all we give up is Cespedes & Castro types, but not prospects like Eyanson or Witherspoon. IMO, these are the types of deals we will see, if we are buyers: 2023: Bradley Blalock for Luis Urias 2024: M Lugo, Kavadas, Zeferjahn & Vargas for Luis Garcia 2024: Paulino, C Coffey & Batista for Danny Jansen 2024: Ovis Portes for Lucas Sims 2025: Blaze Jordan for Steven Matz 2025: Tibbs & Ehrhard for D May I'd love to see these type: 2024: Nick Yorke for Priester 2022: Vazquez for Abreu & EValdez & Diekman for McGuire 2021: Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber, Alex Scherff for Robles & Chavis for Austin Davis

Check this site out to look for possible overslot draft picks. The players at the top are mostly HS players but there are a few college kids maybe the Sox are hoping to poach. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-draft-2026-best-available-prospects/ Our 8th Rd pick is #244, so.... 74. Garrett Wright C/OF 104 Camden Johnson 3B 107 Gavin Gallaher 2B 109 Kollin Ritchie OF 123 Tre Phelps 3B/OF 141 Calvin Proskey RHP

It's been a few years in a row, our pen was viewed as a weakness and then over performed. Maybe that's not luck. Maybe these guys know more about baseball than we give them credit for. It's easy to spot and harp on the "bad trades" and the "ones that got away." IMO, the plan was to have some of our SP'er depth help eat innings in the pen, but for a couple years in a row, we've had way too many SP'er injuries. (I know: join the club, as every team is facing the same issue we are.) Imagine this pen with a healthy Houck or Crawford pitching the 6th-7th and maybe the 8th, too? Just one of them. Now think of both or add Oviedo. Or, put Crochet into the rotation and slide Sandoval or these rookie SP'ers like Tolle and Early, needing innings reductions into a pen role. WOW!

K's shmays. I'll take the .629 OPS Against. Only 6 Sox pitchers have faced more batters AND ave a lower OPSA (Bennett, Moran, Whitlock, Chapman, Tolle and Suarez, of which only 3 are RP'ers.) RP'ers are hot & cold, so I'd keep the hot ones, knowing they may go cold at any moment. The only plus for Watson is his age, upside and control years. The only pitcher on the staff with more PAs and a worse OPSA is Bello. That's how badly Watson has been. There is a reason he only pitches mop up and its his .752 OPSA. The whole "he's a good mop up man, because he can go two innings" cracks me up. The mop up man should be the first to go. This is about JH wanting to save up to $250K. If we get something good back for DC, I'll retract my position.

I'd keep Eyanson. We lose Gray and Crochet is a Q mark, We just started Rivera after having rotational depth 10-11 deep. (He was #12-13?) Eyanson might be ready mid '27 and into '28. Mayer and Witherspoon (add Phillips not Valera, if we can help it) can get us something useful, but it cannot be a rental.

I don't think Brez parts with any highly regarded pitcher, and that is where our strength is, as well as depth. We've already seen that great depth can still end up necessitating pen games and starts by pitchers like Rivera. I don't think Brez trades any top everyday prospects like 1 Arias, 5 Gonzales or 8 Godbout. We might end up needed Arias and or Godbout before we know it, and a potential big bat like Gonzales should be cherished. #6 Azocar, #7 Primera & #11 Soto are too far away to think trading them might hurt, but it seems teams dont overpay for faraway prospects anymore. IMO, that leaves prospects like maybe 13 Holobetz, 14 Cespedes, 17 Wehunt, 19 Uberstine, 20 Paez, 21 Mullins, GRod or Heyman, 24 Bastardo and 30 Dylan Brown as ones we might trade for a rental bat or pen arm. I suppose the highest we mit o would be Witherspoon or Phillips. Valera might return something very nice. We wont trade Eyanson and Delzine is too far away. I've heard some say that because so many teams will be "buying," we might see more ML player for ML player deals tan normal deadlines, as teams seek to trade from strength to fill a bigger need. Nobody wants Story, Yosida or Duran, so it's doubtful any are dealt. I doubt we trade Narvaez, and the way he looks at bat would frighten a minor league manager away. If IKF gets healthy, wat would he bring back? I guess we could offer Monasterio, but again, for what? I just don't see Brez getting bold at this deadline, and I'm not sure I want to see him trade top prospects. It would be easier for Brez, if we were sellers.

Okay. He was cut to save upwards of $250K. He's better than Watson, IMO. I still think he will be traded.

Back to drafting pitchers... 156. Lucas Davenport Baylor RHP (6-6 230) Not Ranked by anybody 185. Brett Lanman Abilene Christian LHP (6-5 228) #307 BA 214. Kide Adetuyi Florida Atlantic LHP (6-1 190) #442 BA 244. Josh Volmerding Cal Poly LHP (6-4 210) Not Ranked 274. Martin Shelar High School OF (125th BA but #80 by ESPN) 304. Kaleb LaFavor HS RHP (6-7 195) 461 BA/171 ESPN Rounds 11-20 all get slotted $150K signing bonuses, Maybe we draft an overslot guy in these rounds. 334. Willis Maginnis SS from GA St 364. Jacob Webster SS High School 394. 424. 454. 484. 514. 544. 574. 604. BA still has 5 players ranked in the top 72 on the boards- all HS players, so maybe we overslot one of them. The top college players still undrafted are: 107 Gavin Gallaher 2B NC 109 Kollin Ritchie OF OK St 151 Erik Paulsen 1B NC 155 Jake McCoy LHP SC 169 Dalton Wentz 3B WF 4 players sin the 180s and 2 in the 190s.

Things can change in the next 3 weeks.

Gotta keep this going. One more game before the ASB. 5 Days off We start off with a doubleheader vs the Rays and 7 games in 6 days. (We'll need a 6th starter or pen game.) Our first 10 games are at home vs division foes (4 TBR, 3 BAL & 3 TOR) A 7 game west coast trip follows (4 v A's then 3 vs LAD) tat brings us to the trade deadline AU 3rd.

Standings 56-37 TBR 49-45 CWS 48-47 TEX ______WC________ 53-42 NYY 50-46 CLE 47-49 SEA & MIN 47-50 HOU -0.5 45-48 BOS -0.5 45-49 TOR -1.0 45-51 BAL -2.0 44-51 DET -2.5 The A's seem to be dropping out. KCR & LAA look like toast. In the NL, Cincy is 8 GB and is likely out. The SFG, NYM and COL are probably toast. That might be 7 teams (less than 25% are out of it.)

Since June 10th, Durbin is tied for 8th in HRs... not on the team, but in MLB! (4th in the AL) Since June 10th (100+ PAs) OPS Leaders 15. Contreras .958 (4th in AL) 17. Durbin .952 (5th in AL)

But only offense guarantees a winning team, we were told.

It's weird how OPS is like the bible for batters but OPS Against is hardly viewed as telling. .200 Rivera (10 PAs) .550 Bennett .566 Moran .572 Whitlock .594 Sandoval (19 PAs) .604 Guerrero .607 Chapman (3 RP'ers are better in OPSA) .613 Tolle (Not considered better than Gray & Suarez) .614 Kelly (demoted to AAA) .621 Suarez .646 Coulombe (DFA'd over some measly bonuses.) .654 Gray .687 Weissert (often criticized on game threads) .713 Anderson (32 PAs) .714 Samaniego (AAA) .720 Early .752 Watson (210 PAs most among RP'ers) .771 Gamboa (still around) .818 Crochet (IL) .847 Slaten (our #3 RP) .851 Bello (AAA) 4 others are gone, demoted or on IL.

Yes, I knew that's what you meant, but the trend towards Abreu being better was clear and significant, last year.

SAL lost 9-8. Andujar wit 3 its and a HR. GRE won 12-7, and hit 5 dingers. 2 by Azocar. POR won 8-3. Woo lost 10-3